Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-10-29

medium height, with broad shoulders and
massive head. His face is large, beardless,
squarely cut, with beamins, blush gray eyes,
and his countenance Is bright. attractive and
very winning Time has made inroads on
his hair, and his forehead will soon extend
from his eyelashes to the base of his brain
He is a wonderfully clever mimic, and he can
screw his face into more shapes that either
Sol Smith Russell or Adonis Dixey. Mr..
Field is domestic in his habits, and there is
wife and four young Fields in his delightful
Chicago home.
At an early age his mother died. and the
embryo humorist was sent to Amherst,
Mass, where he was reared under the strict
moral training OF a devoted aunt He fin
ished his academic education when II years
Of age. His father died soon after, and he
was taken west. After two years in tho
Galesburg Qlls.) college, he completed his
education ut the University Of Missouri
When hd Became OF age he received about
&C, 900 from his fathers estate In 1871 he
went to Europe, spending months roaming
over the continental countries. In few
years time his large fortune melted away,
and he entered the profession Of journalism,
doing his first work as a reporter on the st.
Louis papers Later he found employment
On the Kansas City and Denver press, win
ming his spurs in the latter city Then he
came to Chicago. His literary reputation
has been made in the past dozen years He
is regarded by many as ono Of the very fore
most Of Americas younger verse makers
His verses cover a very wide range-in fact,
from the most grotesque burlesgue to the
most sublime sentiment. His xatirical and
humorous paragraphs have been quoted for
the past half dozen years from one end Of tho
country to tho other. Mr.. Fields copy is q
study His writing Is as clear and beautiful
as copper plate, and so fine that he can read
ily write twenty verse, eighty line poem on
an ordinary postal card
Mr.. Field ard Opie Read are my warm
friends, yet they are totally dissimilar in
appearance, habits and tastes. Mr.. Field is
dressy, likes society and has the surface ap-
pearancc Of q man OF the world Read looks
moro like q prosperous farmer than an &C
complished newspaper man He 10 six feet
two inches tall, large in proportion, with
stopped shoulders, great big head full Of
horss sense, which = running over with hair
that refuses TO acksowledgs . conventional
combirs. He dislikes society, in devoted to
his wife and two children, and loves his
great big briar root Arkansas pipe next to
his family. He scorns dress suits and Is
constantly dodging ''thc village maiden"
who, he alleges, makes him very, very weary.
His dark brown eyes are ever smiling, and
his heavy, dropping mustache is full Of good
nature He has been close student ali his
life, and his range of reading has been won-
derfully wide He is eminently child Of
nature, and is indeed the last Of hts race
When Opie Read dies one Of the brightest
and most characteristically American hu-
morists Of the western type will csase to ex-
ist His character dialect sketches, his breezy
paragraphs and his wonderfully clever stories
are familiar to newspaper readers everywhere.
He is one OF the truest and most natural men I
ever met. He is slowly adding the finishing
touches to book that is destined to creste .
sensation when it appears. 1t will he novel
Of 800 pages, and is called the Backlog It
Is a story OF western life, and every charac-
ter in it is from real life Mr. Read has re-
written the story four times and still he is
not satisfied with it.
Mr.. Read is 81 years Of age He was born
in Gallatin, Tenn, where his agei mother
still resides. He did his first newspaper work
in Franklin, Ky, and has been connected at